With the zyliss almost everything goes through and I can do only one clove if I want to.

I have an old zyliss garlic press made in Switzerland that works great. Here's a picture

I'm glad that they're doing well now but I really don't have a good feeling about how they'll turn out in the end. They missed out on so much training in life I just don't see how this will fair well. I really hope that I'm wrong though.

I read recently the hyperemesis is quite a bite more common who test positive for h.pilori. This really made me wonder if treating the nausea as a symptom of an ulcer is the way to go. I've always had some relief when I up my probiotic foods. I hope that can help but I recognize that I might just be sending you on a quest for the end of the rainbow. Just try to remind yourself that this is only a season and you'll get a really cute little reward at the end. :)

Y'all are getting me hooked on this thread. I don't know if I have the long haul commitment though. I might be a fly by visitor. I'm not much of baby gal once they start being obnoxious. The first few months are great and then I just can't wait until they're around 5. Then they hit the preteen years and they exhaust me again. At around 14 they turn around for the better again.

I've never thought about how carp slept before. It seems a little fishy to me. :P Hopefully they're replacing that black bath tub. Soap scum was terrible then even if the tub wasn't used I had to dust it daily to keep it looking good. I still resent that tub 20 years later.

I guess you missed me. I didn't move there until about '96. I worked in this crazy, high end bed and breakfast. It was from this experience that I learned never to buy a black bath tub. Thanks for throwing me a party. Canadian blood is the best.

1000 posts and in the most important thread on the boards at that! BOOYA(H)!

That made me laugh. Good for him. We've had a couple of friends turned back when coming to visit. The border guys can be really hard nosed. They want to be sure that you're going to turn right back when you're done you're done spending your money here. It's easier to cross in if you've got a house or a permanent job. It's also easier if you fly in and have a return ticket already booked.

Hi! You're welcome to stay here if you like.

I assume that you mean Vancouver Island. Victoria island is up here. It's a common yankie mistake. Weirdly, Victoria is on Vancouver Island. I used to live in Victoria and worked in the tourist industry. What year did you honeymoon there? What did you do there? Maybe I met you. :)

Well thank you. We recently changed our national anthem to be gender neutral. It's caused quite the controversy up here. Just try explaining poutine. That might win us back some points or maybe we'll lose all hope of redemption. Report back with the verdict.

Are you Canadian too?

Classically Christian Academy

Hey all, There's a cool homeschool activity that you can do with tomatoes and potatoes that I read about once in a garden book. Basically you drill a hole in potato and then pop a tomato seedling into the hole and plant the whole thing. The book said that the roots of the tomato will run through the the potato and start growing more potatoes for you. I don't know if it works but it sounds really cool.

What a neat website. I just spend some time browsing through their photos. What beautiful people! I have a brother that has dysmorphic characteristics but is only diagnosed at the moment with severe autism. He is one of my favourite people in the world. This world has so little respect and appreciation for the people that are out of the ordinary, maybe it's fear, but they don't know what they're missing. Disabled and "dysmorphic" people are some of the special variations that the Lord has blessed this world with. Sadly, most people just don't see what a blessing they are.

I've got a boy like you're describing. Mine is 6, going on 7. Everything is very exciting or very terrible. He shouts almost everything that he says. For us one thing that has helped was to institute a bedtime based on how much he's cried during the day. We start the clock at 7:30 and for every instance of inappropriate crying I dock 10 minutes. You could go with 5 if it's happening many many times a day. This has given him a goal to shoot for. I think that it's helped a lot. As a side benefit he's become really good at the mental math required to figure out how much time until his bedtime on any given day. :laugh: We do this too. It definitely has helped my boy too.

I'm not 100% sure about the numbering. We're not at home so I can't check that right now. The machine I've got is greenish grey and has no decorative stitches, just straight and zigzag. It's extremely heavy. It looks just like this one: https://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage-antique-machine-enthusiasts-f22/kenmore-model-43-series-158-a-t197349.html Thanks for the help. It's nice to know that there's someone I can run these questions past.

I actually have another machine that I wouldn't mind your opinion on. I've got a Kenmore 158.43. It might be a Canadian model. I can't figure out the Kemore numbering system. It almost seems that absolutely every machine has it's own number. Did Kenmore really make 5000 different machines? This particular machine has got some weird tension issues. It will stitch just fine for a 8 or so stitches and then it goes way wonky for a bit and then back to fine. I'm inclined to replace the whole tension assembly but maybe the issue is down in the bobbin area. I just don't know where to go looking. It seems like a really sturdy machine in all other respects. My only beef with it is that it doesn't have a light. I keep accumulating machines that are really good in many ways but have one little thing wrong here or there. The Bernina that I mentioned upthread just had worn out carbon rods in the foot. It was a very cheap repair for a $25 machine. My dc14 is really mechanically inclined and we've picked these up as projects and a good source of income for him but I don't know how to direct him very well. Do you know of any online courses in machine repair?

I have a singer 401A that is are really good old machine. I've also got a Bernina 807 that I would recommend. Both run around $200 on ebay. The Bernina is probably the better machine but the feet are way more expensive.

I've been thinking a little more about this subject over the last few days. I think that one thing is that big families are just different beasts than small families. When I just had my two older children things were so different. I could let them get away with things that my current littles just can't get away with. For example, the two older ones would go whipping around the house in a game of tag and it didn't get to me. Now if my littles do that I feel like I'm losing my mind. I have to reign in a lot of crazy behaviour. Another example is that I allowed my older to to discuss plans with me and my dh when they are little. Now I have to tell my little to mind their own business. On the flip side though, I've loosened up in some other areas. I've come to use my really little children to do some of the chores. I reason that get them somewhat done is better than not at all. For example, my 4yo washes the bathroom every evening. My three year olds are washing the walls (and having fun) as I type. I never allowed my older two to do this sort of stuff. I just sent them to play. When I try that now usually I end up with a handful of squabbling children. I've also laxened up on messes. I generously hand my toddlers fliers and safety scissors and reason that 45 minutes of play is worth 5 minutes of cleanup. I send them outside in the mud to get their stink out. I never would have done this years ago because I actually had time to organize clean activities or could spend time doing things like read alouds. A good chunk of my day is spent doing odd chores while I oversea all the dc. I'll go from helping one of the teens to cut a few potatoes, to wiping a bottom, to directing my 4yo to pick up a few pieces of laundry, to asking my 6yo to wash some carrots, to nursing the baby, to asking big sis to take a break and change the baby, to asking a 3yo to help his sister put on a pair socks, to cutting a few more potatoes, etc., etc., etc. Nothing can be done in long chunks. It just can't happen at this time in my life. One other small tip that I have is to ditch toddler naps early. This may sound counter intuitive but having an evening to rest with your older children is a big blessing. I really don't understand people that encourage their 3 and 4 yos to nap and then have them stay up until 9 or 10 at nights. My younger dc are all sound asleep by 7:30 almost every day. I can actually breathe and do things that require some concentration.

I'm really appreciating the advise here. I've got 8 children ages 15, 14, 6, 5, 3, 3, 1 and 2mo. I frequently feel quite overwhelmed. One thing that I did early on though that has helped is to really evaluate what your goals are and cut out all the extras that you can. My two oldest are doing science, math, writing, grammar and history. That's it. Occasionally I add something extra in. I also use the easiest to execute curriculum that I can tolerate. I give them roughly a weeks worth of assignments in a time; I write these out in a notebook. I then make them time to do their work. Our basic day is a standard breakfast, a few chores then school time. I routinely end up calling on one of the two older dc to give me a hand from time to time throughout the day. The take turns with this. For the younger ones I'm just starting to really work with the 6yo. With him I'm just doing reading, math and a heap of library books to cover other topics. I'll start with my 5yo sometime in the next few months.

Not really the middle ages but my understanding is that Victorian England had really bad FAS rates and even child alcoholism.

My understanding is that the facial deformities are generally caused by first trimester drinking and the mental retardation is caused by second and third trimester drinking. You can quite easily have retardation without facial deformities. I have an adopted son (just shy of 4yo) from my sister that is showing signs of developmental delays. He's yet undiagnosed (I haven't really been pursuing it) but I'm pretty sure that he could be labeled as being on the autism spectrum. My sister swears up and down that she didn't drink after 12 weeks when she decided not to abort him but I really don't trust her. He doesn't have any of the facial deformities but I'm still suspicious. I just don't know. This situation makes me wonder how many people seek out an autism diagnosis because it's a socially acceptable label that clears their name.

Wow! I just double checked because you got me doubting. The BC ambulance site said it's an $80 flat fee for ground or air.